AES sedai asha’man bonding

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

In the final couple of books we see a different sort of bond with ashaman and aes sedai where they seem to become telepathic. Was this some sort of fluke that only happened in one case? Because Rand and Alanna didn’t show signs of telepathy, and I don’t recall any evidence of it when he bonded his ladies who could channel. I’m only on my first reread and my initial read through was a little while back, so it may be simply bad recollection or understanding on my part. 

[Scarloc99]

1 hour ago, Lightfriendsocialmistress said:

In the final couple of books we see a different sort of bond with ashaman and aes sedai where they seem to become telepathic. Was this some sort of fluke that only happened in one case? Because Rand and Alanna didn’t show signs of telepathy, and I don’t recall any evidence of it when he bonded his ladies who could channel. I’m only on my first reread and my initial read through was a little while back, so it may be simply bad recollection or understanding on my part. 

I thought that they bonded each other there so ashaman bonded to the aes sedai and vice versa? That is what led to the strange link, but might be misremembering it. Rand, on the other hand, had just the standard one way bond. 

[Stedding Tofu]

Yes, the bond has always been between a woman who could channel and a man who could not.  Alanna bonding Rand meant he could ignore the bond when she tried to compel him but he never bonded her in return.

 

The Pevara - Androl bond was reciprocal and had unintended consequences.  Whether it's unique or not is unclear (Androl's ability with gateways despite his low strength in the power being unique - and theoretically impossible) but Cadsuane's group bonded other Asha'man in Cairhien, Pevara's group numbered 50, all of whom were bonded by Asha'man and then Rand allowed Egwene to send 50 Aes Sedai to bond Asha'man in "compensation".  It's quite possible one of these 100+ bondings was also reciprocal but BS makes it a new discovery and explores it through Androl and Pevara.

 

There's also the question of Rand's multiple bondings with Elayne and Aviendha (in addition to Alanna) but I forget how that bonding worked.  There's certainly no mind reading between them.

 

Mind-reading is too intrusive so I'm glad this has not been established as a rule or inevitable consequence of channelers boding each other.

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

19 hours ago, Stedding Tofu said:

Yes, the bond has always been between a woman who could channel and a man who could not.  Alanna bonding Rand meant he could ignore the bond when she tried to compel him but he never bonded her in return.

 

The Pevara - Androl bond was reciprocal and had unintended consequences.  Whether it's unique or not is unclear (Androl's ability with gateways despite his low strength in the power being unique - and theoretically impossible) but Cadsuane's group bonded other Asha'man in Cairhien, Pevara's group numbered 50, all of whom were bonded by Asha'man and then Rand allowed Egwene to send 50 Aes Sedai to bond Asha'man in "compensation".  It's quite possible one of these 100+ bondings was also reciprocal but BS makes it a new discovery and explores it through Androl and Pevara.

 

There's also the question of Rand's multiple bondings with Elayne and Aviendha (in addition to Alanna) but I forget how that bonding worked.  There's certainly no mind reading between them.

 

Mind-reading is too intrusive so I'm glad this has not been established as a rule or inevitable consequence of channelers boding each other.

Ohhh! Yes, that makes sense. I forgot about the bond being mutual/reciprocal. Thank you for clarifying. Some of the later books have elements that are still kinda hard to unpack though.  Not complaining about BS or judging, I honor and respect what Sanderson took on and completed. 

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

22 hours ago, Sir_Charrid said:

I thought that they bonded each other there so ashaman bonded to the aes sedai and vice versa? That is what led to the strange link, but might be misremembering it. Rand, on the other hand, had just the standard one way bond. 

You are absolutely correct. I forgot about the two way/reciprocal bond. Thanks for clarifying!

[KakitaOCU]

On 2/7/2023 at 4:01 AM, Stedding Tofu said:

Mind-reading is too intrusive so I'm glad this has not been established as a rule or inevitable consequence of channelers boding each other.

It leads to it's own interesting quirks.  If you're ever Curious several of the Recluce novels by L.E. Modesitt Jr deal with it.  Specifically Towers of the Sunset, The Order War and The Death of Chaos.   

Essentially it does force a super level of trust because suddenly there really are no secrets, causes immense stress, takes forever for people to come to terms with it, and results in having both sides die if one does since if you think just taking the Warder's death in is hard, imagine doing it while having their every thought too.

[Lightfriendsocialmistress]

11 hours ago, KakitaOCU said:

It leads to it's own interesting quirks.  If you're ever Curious several of the Recluce novels by L.E. Modesitt Jr deal with it.  Specifically Towers of the Sunset, The Order War and The Death of Chaos.   

Essentially it does force a super level of trust because suddenly there really are no secrets, causes immense stress, takes forever for people to come to terms with it, and results in having both sides die if one does since if you think just taking the Warder's death in is hard, imagine doing it while having their every thought too.

It’s hard to imagine being so exposed and vulnerable in that way, total transparency of every thought, emotion, impulse. Thanks for the recommendations. 

[Stedding Tofu]

20 hours ago, KakitaOCU said:

Essentially it does force a super level of trust because suddenly there really are no secrets, causes immense stress, takes forever for people to come to terms with it, and results in having both sides die if one does since if you think just taking the Warder's death in is hard, imagine doing it while having their every thought too.

 

Yikes, strong argument against 😮

 

In fairness, the Androl - Pevara bond seems to require them to try hard to clarify their thoughts and project them to the other who otherwise just has a fuzzy impression.  So this is more telepathic communication than involuntarily mind-reading but it's still problematic.

 

Imagine if you don't like your other half's cooking / new outfit / middle-aged spread / receding hairline?  Keeping your thoughts to yourself is the answer but what if you can't? 💣